"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 1972

Sunday, November 1, 2015

THE SERMON AND THE JUCUTAN

There has been a general furor over the horrendous sermons of Presbyter Jucutan ever since he was ordained - something Apuron is alleged to have known he shouldn't have done, by the way.

Today the frustration broke into the open again in the comments. So let me take the occasion to clarify:

*****

So here's the deal on Jucutan, and any other priest who doesn't understand what a sermon is.

In the words of Yoda, there is either "Do or do not. There is no try."

A priest, and specifically what a priest says, has the ability to influence our eternal destiny. Indeed, this is why he is ordained to begin with.

There is no "do your best" or "try." Would you fly with a pilot who has a history of crashing? Would you say "well, he just needs to try harder." Or "at least he's more humble than other pilots"?

Well then how much more must we require that a priest know WHAT he's doing given who his passengers are: SOULS destined for eternity!

This is the meaning of "the floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops with the skulls of priests as the signposts." Jesus Christ himself said:

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come!" (By the way, this is the sin of scandal.)

We have enough issues with non-neo priests who do not take their sermons seriously and feel they have completed their task by cracking a few jokes while paraphrasing the Gospel we just heard.

The issue with the neos though is that THERE IS NO HOMILY in the neo-liturgy. There are echoes. The people spout off about what the readings "mean to them" and then the presbyter wraps it up with a few comments of his own.

They have no experience of a real homily and they are not trained to give one. This is why RMS is NOT a seminary for this diocese or ANY diocese. They are not trained to be diocesan priests. They are trained to serve in the neocatechumenal communities just like the articles of incorporation for this screwy place say!

But these unprepared brats are put in our parishes because Apuron needed bodies for his red hat and a reason to justify his stealing of millions from us to support his pretend seminary which has never been anything more than his personal playpen.

By the way. Get the hell out of his parish. I don't know if you have children but if what you're hearing is driving you to sin, what about your children? You have a duty to them to find a parish and a priest who is not a scandal to the faith.

21 comments:

How do you know what will happen at the next consistory,Tim? You don't Remember,Diana hasn't announc d the big surprise yet! Might be a hat , a red hat! Happy Birthday Archbishop from a direct line of the Apostles. Don't have a hissy. ok??

Yes, in fact, given the corruption in the Curia and Francis' strange collapse during this past synod, I wouldn't be surprised if Tony was able to buy a hat. Chances are he has agreed to retire on the condition he is made a cardinal. I have some friends who will show up for the ceremony...with their lawyers.

Monsignor David should mentor him. He is ok at homiletics. Unless he starts snoring in the middle. All of those guys are supposed to be being mentored. not pastor of two parishes or rectors of anything. Stop this stuff. It is idiotic.

When I was starting out with the altar server ministry at my parish, the head altar server once mentioned that he hated when the seminarians would come to the parish, because it meant that we would have to teach them how to do everything. I didn't really get it at first, until I took over the ministry at 15. Then I realized that what he had said was exactly true. You would figure that, since they were actually studying to be priests, they would know how to serve a Mass, or at least know the parts of the Mass.

Not so.

There were times where I had altar servers take over the positions (book bearer, offertory) and had the seminarians standing there looking pretty because they seriously did not know. If I did assign them, I had to assign servers to stand next to them and cue them when to go. You could even tell they looked lost.

But it was extremely disturbing. Any Catholic who has gone to Mass knows the basic parts of it. Any man who was training for the priesthood would know the order of the Roman Catholic Mass, and at least what the objects are called. But no, not this bunch from the seminary. I can't be the only former altar server that has seen this happen in their parish.

And thinking about this even more is equally disturbing. I remember Fabio joining our parish while I was in Confirmation. He started singing Neo-songs, and you can tell because it sounds like they play the same 4 chords in every song. Plus only the kids who were in the Neo (and they were pretty proud of it too, so of course we all knew) sang along with him. I had thought at the time that everyone knew that the seminary was teaching them how to be NCW members, because they would always join the service after Mass. But it wasn't until this started coming to light that I realized it wasn't 'common knowledge' nor was it even supposed to be.

In hindsight, I should've questioned everything - from why we have to host them at various times of the year, to why they didn't know how to run a Mass. Do they still do that to parishes up to now? Have they stopped? Because if they can't deliver a homily to save our souls, run a non-Neo Mass, then really what the heck are these guys learning there?

Tim, you keep mentioning how pastors are in charge of trying to get our souls to heaven, and I recall hearing that in a homily from one of my parish's priests when I was younger. It's as if these young men take that lightly, and that's disturbing when it seems like they're playing Russian roulette with your soul. I only hope that there's some transparency in this formation factory, and if possible, close it down.

I'd rather we send interested young men to a real diocesan seminary off-island, than to train them to be hacks here.

Can you imagine if Archie got his red hat and the neos take total control of the diocese? We'll have responsibles teaching how to live our lives with their history of adultery, cunniligus, drugs etc. What a bunch of phonies.

And you and the rest of our lukewarm brethren would allow the total control of our diocese by these interlopers?! When will you rise up? A war needs soldiers and we are fighting a war. Do you not remember that at your confirmation you became a soldier for Christ? We need to fight for Our Lord, not wait for him to fight our battles. Meditate on this.

In his 11:30 Mass, Jucutan said God is a community, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Oh, and there was no choir. Jucatan sang the entrance and offertory songs, then some brave soul went to the choir section and led the congregation in song during communion and the recesstional. Was told that no choir sang in the previous 11:30 Masses.

This is actually a dangerous thing to say without context. Jucutan is using the word "community" in a way that we automatically suspect is a justification for the "community" model of the NCW.

We normally do not speak of God as a "community," but as a Trinity. However, we know that Kiko rejects the Trinity.

The full use of the word "community" in describing God can be found in JP2's Theology of the Body where he referred to God as a "community of persons." JP2's intent was to show how the married, fruitful couple is the "image" of God as found in Genesis 1:26-27.

Another example of how Kiko's theology is penetrating the True Church. DO NOT GO TO THESE MASSES. I wonder if there are even real Masses.

Which parish is Jucutan's? I would like to hear him for myself. Of course, I wouldn't count that as fulfilling my Sunday obligation.In a Neo Saturday liturgy they do that echo thing?Eileen Benavente-Blas

The next NEO presbyter is being scheduled for ordination this weekend. Voice your concerns during the part of the ceremony where people are asked to come forward with reasons not to proceed. Speak now or forever hold your regrets.

bad homilies are one of my pet peeves. i feel it even worse now whenever i come back to the island, because i've gotten used to generally better-quality homilies here on the mainland.

and yes, it's not just the neocat "presbyters." many of our beloved long-time priests have been delivering bad homilies for years. although they're not doctrinally wrong (at least the ones i've heard), they tend to ramble on and on for 20 minutes without really making much substantive points about the readings we've just heard.

and it's not a language issue. i bet that their homilies would be just as bad if chamorro priests gave them in chamorro or if filipino priests gave them in tagalog.

are our priests and deacons just so busy, that they can't spend the time required to prepare for their sermons? they can write or type it, if that would help them (actually, a great idea--they can post it to their parish website afterwards). they can also just base it off of 'the magnificat' or 'living with christ' once in a while if they're not able to gather their own thoughts, citing the source, of course.

Is he the same bonehead who flipped through the book last Easter at 1130a mass?Probably the same dolt with the 'seminarian' hovering and the little (under 10 year old) altar boys setting the table because he (seminarian) was so completely CLUELESS?

stop going to masses at churches you know have those neo's. those are not real masses especially since they don't follow the order, can't speak to the gospel with any real 'meaning or substance' and for all intents and purposes are nothing more than bobble heads.

I stopped attending the masses at the cathedral because of his bad sermons and forgetfullness in the way he serves mass. the sermons alone are a headache .. and i dont know why he does not have the audacity to prepare his sermon if he is not knowledgeable on the topic... What a dismay!!